


Poetic Forms

by fileg



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Other - Freeform, Research Article
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-14
Updated: 2003-06-11
Packaged: 2018-03-22 21:04:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 6,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3743456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fileg/pseuds/fileg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A General Overview  and Guide to various forms of Poetry and Verse</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the HASA Transition Team: This story was originally archived at [HASA](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Henneth_Ann%C3%BBn_Story_Archive), which closed in February 2015. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in February 2015. We posted announcements about the move, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this author, please contact The HASA Transition Team using the e-mail address on the [HASA collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/hasa/profile).

Poetic Forms

In this article, you will find the basic information - History, Rhyme Scheme, Meter and Required Elements – of various poetic forms. We hope that this will guide you in two ways –

If you are reviewing or trying to understand a particular verse, this should give you some “hard” criteria to evaluate how it works, and if it does all you ask of it. But please keep in mind – reviewing poetry this way is a lot like judging Ice-Skating for the Olympics. The “required elements” are important, but in the final analysis, “artistic merit” is what matters. Does it work for you? Does it move you? Do you want to read it again?

 

 

We also hope that some of you are looking for new things to try. No matter what you were taught in school, remember these three things:

1\. It does not _have_ to be hard to understand to be good.

2\. Learning to express yourself inside the rules of a form will teach you a lot about yourself as a writer; what you want to say and how you want to say it – even if the poem itself never sees the light of day. Try writing the same idea in several forms if you are struggling to understand a character or plot point in a story!

3\. It _is_ supposed to be fun- otherwise, why would you want to do it?

While we all want to be technically correct, fiction and poetry sometimes need to be experimental. The "rules" say the bumblebee can't fly - but that's because the rules look at the bumblebee as a fixed-wing aircraft. Sometimes if you want to fly, you have to beat your wings.

 

This article will be stripped down to the bones of the forms, an unemotional guide to give you quick answers

If you would like to play with the forms, ask questions or see them in action, we encourage you to join us at: [Verse and Adversity](http://astele.co.uk/henneth/Chapter/forums/threads.cfm?confid=6&forumid=272) forum, a much more informal guide and playground.

If you have serious questions, we recommend Stultiloquentia's forum:  
[the Poetry Discussion.](http://astele.co.uk/henneth/Chapter/forums/threads.cfm?confid=4&forumid=129)


	2. Villanelle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A General Overview and Guide to various forms of Poetry and Verse

Villanelle refers to a country house or farm. Originally they were Italian folk songs and often had an accompanying dance. They had as their theme the joy of country living. Today a villanelle can be used to express any theme.

French poet Jean Passerat (1534-1602) wrote a poem in the late 1500’s titled _villanelle_ and it became the guide for the strict form of this poem.

 

 

The poem is 19 lines long, divided into five three line stanzas and a final four line stanza.

The first and third lines of the first stanza are repeated alternately - so the first line becomes the last line in the second stanza, and the third line becomes the last line in the third stanza, and this pattern repeats

The poem rhymes in a pattern of A-B-A until the last stanza, which uses both of the repeating lines: A-B-A1-A2  
The last two lines of the poem are lines one and three, making a rhymed couplet, and like a sonnet, this is where the poem should use the opening lines to sum up or express its main thought.

A villanelle does not have a required meter or line length, though generally the first and last lines of the triplets should match each other, and then all the center lines should match each other.

 

A strong villanelle uses line breaks and refrains that make sense. Experimenting with line break _(enjambment)_ can take the edge off the repetition of the refrain making it seem less forced.

It is good to use a word or line that can have slightly different meanings. Misdirection is also good – but so is simple and straightforward and stripped back to feeling and heartbeats.

 

A1 first A (sets meter for pairs)  
B first B (can be different meter, and will set up meter for the centers)  
A2 second A (rhymes and matches meter with first A)

A third A  
B second B  
A repeat A1

A fourth A  
B third B  
A repeat A2

A fifth A  
B fourth B  
A repeat A1

A sixth A  
B fifth B  
A repeat A2

A seventh A  
B sixth B  
A repeat A1  
A repeat A2

 

*******

This is Dylan Thomas' _Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night._ It is probably the most famous villanelle and it should inspire you to see how little he pushes the line breaks, the structure, etc.. It is just simple, elegant and heart-stopping.

 

Do not go gentle into that good night,  
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;  
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,  
Because their words had forked no lightning they  
Do not go gentle into that good night,

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright  
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,  
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,  
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,  
Do not go gentle into that good night,

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight  
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,  
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,  
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.  
Do not go gentle into that good night,  
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.


	3. Celtic Verse: Cywydd Measures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A General Overview and Guide to various forms of Poetry and Verse

There are 24 traditional Welsh poetic forms as set down in the 14th century by Einion Offeiriad and Dafydd Ddu Athro.

 

Cywydd Measures  
These measures are one of the traditional Welsh verse forms.

There is no exact translation for the word cywydd, but these forms are among the most popular celtic measures. They give their name to a whole group of 13th and 14th-century poets, who became known as the cywyddwyr (or cywydd-men.) There are four cywydd measures:

Awdl gywydd (all gu-with )

* * * * * * A  
* * A * * * B  
* * * * * * C  
* * C * * * B

 

Cywydd deuair Hyrion ( cuh-with day-air her-ee-on ; long-lined couplets)

The form consists of seven-syllable rhymed couplets.

* * * * * * A  
* * * * * * A

* * * * * * B  
* * * * * * B

and so on…..

One of the last words in the couplet has to be trochaic (/accented, unaccented/) and the other iambic (/unaccented, accented/). In other words, the rhyming syllables alternate between stressed and unstressed (so "confess" and "brightness" might end two consecutive lines).

 

Cywydd deuair fyrion (cuh-with day-air froo-ee-on ; short-lined couplets)

It is a very rare form. It consists of four- syllable rhymed couplets, stressed as above, one trochaic, one iambic.

* * * A  
* * * A

* * * B  
* * * B

 

Cywydd llosgyrnog (cuh-with lo-seer-nock )

* * * * * * * A  
* * * * * * * A  
* * A * * * B  
* * * * * * * C  
* * * * * * * C  
* * C * * * B

 

 

In these forms, there is traditionally forgiveness to shift the _internal_ rhyme one space in either direction  



	4. Ballad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A General Overview and Guide to various forms of Poetry and Verse

Ballads  
By paraniodangel

 

Ballads are very rhythmic, like the backing beat of a song.

They are written in stanzas of four lines each in iambic beats, where lines 1 and 3 have four beats (da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM) and lines 2 and 4 have three beats (da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM). Lines 2 and 4 also rhyme.

Generally they're used for gruesome or funny stories, so a funny example is from Alice in Wonderland, the poem called 'You are Old Father William:

'You are old, Father William', the young man said,  
'And your hair has become very white;  
And yet you incessantly stand on your head --  
Do you think, at your age, it is right?'

You can play around with the form a bit and rhyme in other places, and go for stanzas of six lines. Here's possibly the best known verse from The Walrus and the Carpenter, from Through the Looking Glass:

"The time has come," the Walrus said,  
"To talk of many things:  
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--  
Of cabbages--and kings--  
And why the sea is boiling hot--  
And whether pigs have wings."  



	5. Clerihew

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A General Overview and Guide to various forms of Poetry and Verse

The Clerihew  
By Llinos

The Clerihew is named in honour of its inventor, Edmund Clerihew Bentley.

It is a humorous pseudo-biographical quatrain, rhymed as two couplets, with lines of uneven length more or less in the rhythm of prose.

The name of the subject is usually in the first line (sometimes the second line). The humour of the clerihew is whimsical rather than satiric. It is short and pithy, and often contains or implies a moral reflection of some kind.

Here are two of my favourites:

Said Des Cartes "I extol  
Myself because I have a soul  
And beasts do not." Of course  
He had to put Des Cartes before the horse.

Said Sir Christopher Wren  
"I'm going to dine with some men,  
If anyone calls,  
Just say I'm designing St Pauls."


	6. Couplets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A General Overview and Guide to various forms of Poetry and Verse

  
Rhyming couplets  
By Alawa

 

 

Here are a few words on rhyming couplets

 

Couplets can rhyme in pairs

Aa  
Bb  
Cc  
Dd

for as long as you like. The sense can run on at the end of a line without pause (ie it is enjambed). They are suitable for writing almost anything.

Shakespeare uses them for some speeches in his plays, but I think there were first used in English in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tale, ie for long narrative poetry. Here is an example from the General Prologue in honour of Imrahil

A Knyght ther was, and that a worthy man,  
That fro the tyme that he first bigan  
To riden out, he loved chivalrie,  
Trouthe and horour, freedom and curteisie.  
Ful worthy was he in his lordes werre,  
And therto hadde he ridden, no man ferre,  
As wel in cristendom as in hethenesse,  
And evere honoured for his worthynesse.

 

*******

The 18th century saw the rise of the **heroic couplet.**  
These are written in iambic pentameter (a basic five beat rhythm)

This form was popular for epic, (Dryden and Popes translations of Virgil and Homer), narrative (often satirical) and philosophical discussion. The general idea is that each couplet should contain a complete, epigrammatic thought.

Here is a famous example from Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man. From Epistle 2. Of the Nature and State of Man With Respect to Himself, as an Individual:

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;  
The proper study of Mankind is Man.  
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,  
A being darkly wise, and rudely great:  
With too much knowledge for the skeptic side,  
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,  
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest,  
In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast;  
In doubt his mind or body to prefer,  
Born but to die, and reasoning but to err;  
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,  
Whether he thinks too little, or too much:  
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;  
Still by himself abused, or disabused:  
Created half to rise, and half to fall;  
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;  
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled:  
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!


	7. Doggerel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A General Overview and Guide to various forms of Poetry and Verse

* Although I have heard that good doggerel should cause you to caterwaul, no animals were harmed during the creation of this discussion*

 

Doggerel is a form of comic verse, characterized by a loose structure and rhyme pattern that makes unlikely choices for humorous effect. It is defined as

1\. poetry that does not scan well and is often not intended to be taken seriously

\--or--

2\. something that is badly written or makes no sense at all

 

For our purposes, doggerel falls in the first category. It should be silly, and groaningly, but _purposefully_ bad.  



	8. Double Dactyl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A General Overview and Guide to various forms of Poetry and Verse

The double dactyl is a rigid, humerous form, and very much based on its meter. It is also more fun than you can possibly imagine until you start writing them.

First of all – don’t panic.

A dactyl is a stressed syllable, followed by two unstressed syllables. | – – And a double dactyl is two dactyls in a row.

If that doesn’t help you get in touch with the rhythm, think of it this way – this poem is often called a “higgledy piggeldy”. Got it now? Good!

The double dactyl is about someone – someone whose name (or some version of their name including their title, etc.) is a perfect double dactyl, and that is where you start. (think Eleanor Roosevelt – or - Gilbert and Sullivan)

Then you make up a little story or morality play. Or just work your way to a smart aleck-ey remark.

Finding a name can be the hardest part in the real world, but in middle earth, there are lots of lovely elves and big strong boys from Gondor with dactylic names just waiting to be made the butt of your jokes. (Gildor Inglorion – or - Turin and Anglachel)

The first line is two dactyls that are nonsense words and rhyme with each other – like higgledy piggeldy or hickory dickory or whatever works for your person  
The double dactyl is a rigid, humorous form, based on its meter.

 

A dactyl is a stressed syllable, followed by two unstressed syllables. | – – And a double dactyl is two dactyls in a row.

The double dactyl is about someone – someone whose name (or some version of their name, their title, etc.) is a perfect double dactyl. (think Eleanor Roosevelt – or - Gilbert and Sullivan)

Then you make up a little story or morality play. Or just work your way to a smart aleck-ey remark.

Finding a name can be the hardest part in the real world, but in middle earth, there are lots of lovely elves and big strong boys from Gondor with dactylic names just waiting to be made the butt of your jokes. (Gildor Inglorion – or - Turin and Anglachel)

The first line is two dactyls that are nonsense words and rhyme with each other – like higgledy piggeldy or hickory dickory or whatever works for your person

Here is the strict layout:

1 two dactyls that rhyme with each other  
2 A name that is a double dactyl  
3 that's right – 2 more dactyls. They still don’t have to rhyme with anything  
4 one more dactyl – and then an extra stressed syllable

5 two more dactyls  
6 (strictly) a single word that is a double dactyl (or 2 more dactyls)  
7 two more, keep going  
8 one last dactyl, and one extra syllable – and this line rhymes with line 4

*****

Florin McCain:

Higgeldy Piggeldy  
Marion Morrison’s  
sissified monicker  
gave him a pain

Transformed by Hollywood  
Cinematography  
Now he is famous as  
Tough guy John Wayne


	9. haiku

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A General Overview and Guide to various forms of Poetry and Verse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me.

Haiku  
By Elvenesse

 

Here’s a description that I've borrowed from the poetry website Wondering Minstrels:

Haiku is a Japanese poetic form, which takes nature in each season as its theme and expresses inspiration derived from nature.

Since the natural world transforms itself swiftly and since inspiration is fleeting, they must be caught in words quick, short and precise.

The traditional rules for haiku are that each verse uses seven or eight words, a total of only seventeen rhythmical syllables (5-7- 5), including a season word.

In diction haiku values simple words over obscure and difficult ones.

I am getting fat  
and unattractive but so  
much nicer to know.

Somewhere at the heart  
of the universe sounds the  
true mystic note: Me.  
\-- Peter Porter  



	10. Sonnet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A General Overview and Guide to various forms of Poetry and Verse

Traditional sonnets  
By Alawa

 

The fundamental thing about a sonnet is that it consists of fourteen lines, (an asymmetrical form – 14 can only be divided by 2 or 7) and it is written in iambic pentameter which is a basic di-dum, di-dum, di-dum, di-dum, di-dum.

Because it is short it is good for the concentrated expression of an idea or passion. Usually there is a tension between two ideas or moods or arguments that are presented, contrasted or reconciled.

Traditionally the sonnet seems to divide up into two camps the Italian (Petrarchan) and the English (Shakespearean) forms.

*******

Italian (Petrarchan)

The sonnet originated as a conventional form of love lyric in Italy. In the fourteenth century Petrarch wrote over 300 of them.

The seventeen lines are divided into to an octave, (the first 8 lines) and a sestet (the last 6 lines) – The argument of the poem hinges at line 9 ( the volta or turn) and there is no final couplet. The division between the octave and the sestet is clearly marked by a change in rhyme scheme.

Octave: abba, abba Sestet: one of the following: cdc cdc, cde cde, or cde dce.

Here’s an example. I’m going to use On his Blindness by John Milton (1608-74) because I’d also like to show how he moved the form on a bit into the “Miltonic sonnet”. Not liking the sharp break between the octave and sestet, he allowed the sense to flow strongly across from line 8 to line 9 (enjambement) while still maintaining the change in tone.

 

When I consider how my light is spent  
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,  
And that one talent which is death to hide  
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent  
To serve therewith my Maker, and present  
My true account, lest He returning chide, -  
Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?  
I fondly ask:- But Patience, to prevent  
That murmur, soon replies; God doth not need  
Either man’s work, or His own gifts; who best  
Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best: His state  
Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed  
And post o’er land and ocean without rest:  
They also serve who only stand and wait.

 

The Petrarchan sonnets were translated and introduced into England by Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-42) where the form evolved into the Shakespearean form, which allowed more variation in the rhymes (it being harder to rhyme in English than Italian.)

*******

 

English (Shakespearean)

The rhyme scheme is simple four groups of four (quatrains) and a couplet: abab cdcd efef gg but it is harder to make this form work really well as so much rests on the last two lines.

The sonnet still divides up into two sections but now twelve lines stand against the final two. Ideally the argument should progress as follows:

Quatrain 1 – set down an idea  
Quatrain 2 – develop it  
Quatrain 3 – bring it to some kind of culmination  
Couplet – subvert, overturn or massively endorse the preceding 12 lines

Here is an example, from Shakespeare (1564-1616), of course

When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,  
I all alone beweep my outcast state,  
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,  
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,  
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,  
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,  
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,  
With what I most enjoy contented least:  
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,  
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,  
Like to the lark at break of day arising  
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;  
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings  
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

 

*******

I should perhaps mention a hybrid form, the Spenserian sonnet.

It still retains the 12 + 2 form but the 3 quatrains are nicely interlaced:  
abab bcbc cdcd ee

So basically it combines the difficult bits out of each of the other forms – a limit of 5 rhymes and a final couplet


	11. Terza Rima

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A General Overview and Guide to various forms of Poetry and Verse

The Terzanelle and the Villanelle grew from another Italian form, the Terza Rima.

The Terza Rima is written in triplets, or tercets.  
There is no set number of number of tercets.

It will end with a single couplet, in one of two ways:

A. You can carry down the last of the middle lines and write a single rhyming line to form the couplet

B. You can make the middle line of the last triplet rhyme with your first (A) pair, and carry down either the two rhymed lines from the first stanza, like a villanelle or a terzanelle, or one of those lines, to re-establish the pattern.

 

There is also a hybrid form that uses the pattern of the Terza in a strict form of four triplets and a final couplet and produces the Terza Rima Sonnet!

 

Lines 1 and line 3 of each tercet will rhyme with each other, and the middle line of the verse will establish the rhyme for the next triplet pair.

As with so many of the forms, in English, the poem is usually rendered in iambic pentameter. But any meter is acceptable as long as it is maintained in the patter chosen, as is using a different poetic foot for the middle lines.

 

 

A first A  
B first B  
A second A (rhymes with the first line)

B second B  
C first C  
B third B, rhymes with other B lines

C second C  
D first D  
C third C rhymes with other C lines

Continue until you are ready to sum up, and end (for example):

X second x  
Y first Y  
X third x

Y second Y  
Y third Y

****

In the variant, you would use:

X second x  
Y(A) rhyme this line with your original A lines  
X third x

A repeat first A from above  
A repeat second A from above

 

*******

example:

Robert Frost  
 _Acquainted with the Night_

 

I have been one acquainted with the night.  
I have walked out in rain--and back in rain.  
I have outwalked the furthest city light

I have looked down the saddest city lane.  
I have passed by the watchman on his beat  
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet  
When far away an interrupted cry  
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-by;  
and further still at an unearthly height  
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.  
I have been one acquainted with the night.  



	12. Terzanelle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A General Overview and Guide to various forms of Poetry and Verse

A terzanelle is a modified form of the villanelle.

It uses the interlocked rhyme pattern of a terza rima but in the villanelle’s form of five triplets and a quatrain.

The middle line of the 1st stanza becomes the third line of the next stanza, and so on.

Since the repeated line changes, the rhyme sounds change, which makes it a little easier on the ears during the writing process.

They are strictly written in iambic pentameter, but playing with the foot and stress can be a good way to get better flow – ideally, though, you should keep all lines in whatever meter you pick.

 

A first a  
B first b  
A second a

B second b  
C first c  
B repeat first b

C second c  
D first D  
C repeat first c

D second d  
E first e  
D repeat first d

E second e  
F first f  
E repeat first e

F second f  
A repeat first a  
F repeat first f  
A repeat second a

 

 

*******

 

example:

Lewis Turco  
 _Terzanelle in Thunderweather_

This is the moment when shadows gather  
under the elms, the cornices and eaves.  
This is the center of thunderweather.

The birds are quiet among these white leaves  
where wind stutters, starts, then moves steadily  
under the elms, the cornices, and eaves--

these are our voices speaking guardedly  
about the sky, of the sheets of lightning  
where wind stutters, starts, then moves steadily

into our lungs, across our lips, tightening  
our throats. Our eyes are speaking in the dark  
about the sky, of the sheets of lightening

that illuminate moments. In the stark  
shades we inhibit, there are no words for  
our throats. Our eyes are speaking in the dark

of things we cannot say, cannot ignore.  
This is the moment when shadows gather,  
shades we inhibit. There are no words, for  
this is the center of thunderweather.  



	13. Triolet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A General Overview and Guide to various forms of Poetry and Verse

The triolet has eight lines, and takes its name from a French word meaning “small trio,” which refers to the three repetitions of the first line.

Like a villanelle, It has only two rhymes, and two of the lines repeat. Here’s the layout:

1A first rhyme  
1B second rhyme  
2a rhymes with first line  
1A repeat first line  
3a rhymes with first line  
2b rhymes with second line  
1A repeat first line  
1B repeat second line

There is no hard and fast rule about meter, but once you have chosen the length of your line, the other lines that rhyme with it should be the same.

It seems to have good flow if the “a” and “b” lines are different lengths.

It seems simple, but can be deceptively powerful - like the quick stabbing of a stiletto.

********

 

O why do you walk through the fields in gloves,  
Missing so much and so much?  
O fat white woman whom nobody loves,  
Why do you walk through the fields in gloves,  
When the grass is soft as the breast of doves  
And shivering sweet to the touch?  
O why do you walk through the fields in gloves,  
Missing so much and so much?  
\-- Frances Cornford


	14. Celtic Verse: The Englyn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A General Overview and Guide to various forms of Poetry and Verse

The Englyn  
By Llinos

 

An englyn is a uniquely Welsh form of poetry, dating from as far back as the 6th Century AD. An englyn is beautiful in its brevity, exquisite in its diction, making remarkable use of alliteration. The poems themselves are often pointed and thought provoking.

There are many forms of englyn, but the most often used is known as englyn unodl (union). This is a form of thirty syllables arranged in lines of ten, six, seven and seven syllables. There is one end-rhyme, but in the first line one, two or three syllables layer the rhyming word, and are echoed in the first words of the second line. Cynghanedd (literally "harmony", where there is an internal alliteration) is necessary.

Englyn a thelyn a thân - ac afal  
ac yfwyr mewn diddan  
a gwin melys a chusan  
dyn fain lwys, dyna fyw'n lân

An englyn, and a harp, a fire - and an apple  
and drinkers in merriment  
and sweet wine and a kiss  
of a slim pure girl, that's pure life

 

This is an englyn I learned very early on, as my husband repeated it to me before I even learned Welsh, although it dates, as you can see, from the reign of Queen Victoria.

It is an arrangement of seven, seven, seven and, the way I say it eight, but it should probably be nine syllables. Iaith (language) sometimes stresses the first syllable and sometimes not, depending where it lands. Here it is the repetition so it's a little tricksy, but then it's the most important part of the englyn, since there was much resentment in Welsh-speaking Wales during Victorian times over the insistence that all should learn English. That's why my husband likes it, as it's a little defiant about keeping the Welsh language alive.

Llewllyn bach tyrd yma  
ac ar fy neilyn ddysga  
iaith dy fam yn cyntaf un  
ac wedyn iaith Victoria

Little Llewllyn come here  
sit on my lap to learn  
the language of your mother first  
and then the language of Victoria

Heddwch!

Llinos (which means linnet or thrush in Welsh BTW)


	15. Limericks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A General Overview and Guide to various forms of Poetry and Verse

This article will start with the basics, assuming nothing. Feel free to skip around as there is more advanced information later on. The nice part is that almost everyone knows at least one limerick, whether learned as a child or as an adult. If you learned a limerick as an adult, there's a good chance it's risqué.

A limerick has a rhyme scheme of **aabba**. I have learned since Verse and Adversity's limerick fest that the beat is called anapestic, three syllables of weak-weak-strong, which sounds like this: da-da-dum, da-da-dum…

The classic limerick is 3 such groups or feet in lines 1, 2, and 5; with two feet in lines 3 and 4.

Illustrating that scheme is this classic limerick by Edward Gorey:

Said a _girl_ who, up _on_ her div _an_  
Was at _tacked_ by a _vir_ ile young _man:_  
"Such ex _cess_ of pas _sion_  
Is quite _out_ of fash _ion!"_  
And she _fract_ ured his _wrist_ with her _fan_

~*~

**So what makes a beat 'weak' or 'strong'?**

If it is an emphasized word or syllable, it is strong. You can usually tell by saying it, but the dictionary may help when it's unclear. That isn't the final answer though, as the way people actually pronounce words is often not what the dictionary indicates, and you have wiggle room to use whichever works better. This goes further, in that a word like 'missed' can be legitimately rhymed with 'list' and can therefore count as one syllable.

The [Limerick Discussion Page](http://www.sfu.ca/~finley/discussion.html) suggests 'one good test is whether the sentence sounds natural with beats on the assumed accented syllables. A particular one syllable word may be weak or strong depending on the context…The preposition, "of" can be strong in iambic, e.g. "I am the leader of the street", but is nearly always weak in anapestic, e.g., "I'm the king of the road".' This site also gives general rules for words of one, two and three syllables - I urge you to check it out if this form interests you.

~*~

**Variations**

There are permitted variants in meter, making it easier to write a limerick, but a bit more confusing at first. One such variant allows the first group or foot in a line to omit one beat and be weak-strong or da-dum. This makes for the well known:

There _was_ a young _la_ dy from _Kent_  
  
type of limerick. Here is one written by Elvenesse from the limerick thread at HASA that consistently uses the da-dum in the beginning of every line:

The _mir_ ror of _Ga_ ladri _el_  
Is _set_ in a _small_ wooded _dell_  
The _vis_ ions you _see_  
When _in_ it you _pee_  
I _beg_ of you, _please_ do not _tell._

This limerick not only had perfect adherence to rhyme scheme, it is also a great example of the kind of humor demanded by the Limerick Discussion Page: "A good limerick must have some element of the absurd." One web site quoted E. V. Knox (past editor of Punch magazine)as saying a limerick should "contain the largest amount of improbable incident or of subtle innuendo that can be crowded into the available space."

A limerick Tay wrote on the same thread varies the initial beat pattern, with lines 1 and 4 having a single initial weak beat, and lines 2, 4, and 5 having two initial weak beats:

Prince _Im_ rahil, _Knight_ of the _Swan_  
has a _part_ that, though _sketch_ ily _drawn_  
will _be_ sorely _missed_  
if it _does_ n’t ex _ist_  
when Re _turn_ of the _King_ is put _on_

This one has good rhythm, but some critics would say it suffers from being too clean - no innuendo or outright naughtiness.

Another accepted variation is one or two extra weak beats at the end of a line, but the rhyming lines must be consistent about this; unlike above, where variation at the beginning sounds fine even if it isn't consistent through the rhyming lines.

Here is one Nessime wrote with one trailing weak beat at the end of lines 3 and 4.

I've a bone of contention to pick  
with PJ and his Two Towers flick:  
Hasufel had to settle,  
tho' he was in fine fettle;  
his part lost to some movie-verse shtick.

And one of mine with one trailing beat after lines 1, 2, and 5.

Mariel who at times wrote fanfiction  
was distraught at the strength of addiction  
She developed a stash  
of h/c, angst and slash  
Surely this is a grievous affliction!

This next has two weak trailing beats on lines 1, 2, and 5:

To discuss Elessar and virginity  
I have found a most nat'ral affinity  
Was he pure as the snow?  
Please describe blow by blow -  
we'll ignore Evenstar's consanguinity.

This one was inspired by a discussion in the Sexuality in Middle-earth forum about virginity. It cheats a little - the first line is off because the stress should be on the second syllable of Elessar, but to keep the rhythm it has to be on the third. In the second line I have also cheated, but since many people do not enunciate the middle syllable of 'natural' it still doesn't sound too bad. Although I suspect the really good limerick writers would not stoop to this, clever rhymes can distract from other defects.

Some examples of delightful rhymes from the Limerick thread: kindred/inbred, Smeagol/Deagol/illegal, audacious/salacious/ bodacious and one that I found especially impressive - imperial/Lothiriel. I can overlook a lot of small fudges for rhymes like these.

This all sounds fairly complicated, and a perfectionist would demand these rules apply with precise pronunciation of stressed syllables. Most of us are not perfectionists. There were many enjoyable and hilarious offerings posted on the Limerick thread that did not follow strict meter. I find it is hard to write perfect meter. You can cheat a bit, but cheat too much and it won't sound right. To my ear, if you have the correct number of feet, you can get away with occasional fluffs on the beat. I also find that when I read a limerick I will automatically change the emphasis to make the beat correct. This is all relative of course, but if the rhythm is strong through most of the limerick, it can carry the reader over the rough spots.

~*~

Oh, the other thing about limericks? They are traditionally somewhat suggestive or outright bawdy. You can get away with simply funny, but a clean, serious limerick just doesn't fit the form.

~*~

**History**

There is a lot of controversy about the origin of limericks. The first known publication of a limerick collection was in 1820, although they were not then called by that name. Edward Lear later published his 'Book of Nonsense' containing limericks in 1846.  
It wasn't until later that the word 'limerick' was used, and while there are theories as to why, very little supporting evidence exists. The first known use of the word ‘Limerick’ referring to a five-line verse was in a letter from Aubrey Beardsley, the artist, who used the term in 1896.

While the early collections were suitable for children, limericks took on a different character over the next several years, becoming naughtier. An amusing comment on this:

The limerick is furtive and mean;  
You must keep her in close quarantine,  
Or she sneaks to the slums  
And promptly becomes  
Disorderly, drunk and obscene.  
—Morris Bishop

 

**Final Thoughts**  
Other features mentioned by some limerick sites as desirable:  
A clever, unanticipated punch line as line five.  
A Limerick that is not insipid or pointless.  
Puns, word play, eccentric spelling, or some other witty feature.  
"If not bawdy, limericks should still be rough in some way, such as through ludicrous use of language, ludicrous situation or ironic comment. Of course, if more than one of these can be combined, the limerick may be better."

And some caveats:  
"Dextrous use of fancy words enhances a limerick, but clumsy use of fancy words does not help.  
Bawdiness or salaciousness are not substitutes for cleverness.  
This genre can and does take more ingenious rhymes than most other forms of poetry, but one should still strive to make the rhymes appear to be as natural as possible."

~*~

The information for this article came from these sites: http://www.umkc.edu/imc/limerick.htm  
http://www.limericks.org/pentatette/reply.html  
http://www.sfu.ca/~finley/discussion.html  
http://www.limericks.org/pentatette/taxonomy.htm  
(For those who want to go further, this page of 'Limerick Taxonomy' had some interesting subtypes.)

 

My thanks to Nessime, Tay, and Elvenesse, who graciously permitted me to use their limericks.

Lyllyn


	16. Haiku (expanded)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A General Overview and Guide to various forms of Poetry and Verse

**Haiku**

by Wild Iris

Haiku, the shortest of all forms, is a 'people's poetry'  
that records the visionary moments of everyday life.It developed in Japan during the 16th-17th centuries CE, as an offshoot of the linked verse form _renga_.The essential characteristics of the form are thus. style="mso-spacerun: yes"> A haiku expresses a moment of vivid  
awareness/perception sparked by observation of the world.It  
shares that experience with the reader by way of concrete imagery; that is, it  
presents directly the object(s) that moved the poet - birds flying, dew on a  
leaf, a woman's bright gown on a grey day, etc.The poem does not state why the poet's 'moment' was  
significant.By juxtaposing images and  
by playing on existing cultural associations, it invites the reader to make  
their own connections and to pursue the ramifications of the experience.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> Haiku have been described as starting points  
for thought.They focus on a specific,  
local object that suggests a more universal theme.Readers bring their own perceptions to bear in order to draw out  
the wider picture.

Haiku commonly take their subjects from nature, although  
they can also focus on the human world.   
The tone of haiku is one of openness to experience; the haiku poet never  
ceases to be surprised by the world.   
Haiku use clean, everyday language, few adjectives (and no simply  
'decorative' adjectives), and no internal metaphors or similes (though the  
entire poem may stand as an implicit metaphor).Haiku are not declamatory; they do not make general, abstract  
statements, and in fact rarely make direct statements of any kind.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> To borrow a couple of well-known maxims,  
haiku are pure 'show, don't tell', and they render 'the thing as it is'.

A traditional Japanese haiku typically comprises four to ten  
words, arranged in three lines of respectively five, seven, and five  
syllables.(These syllabic patterns  
have a long history in Japanese poetry.)   
By convention, the poem includes a so-called 'season word' ( _kigo_ )  
that situates it within a particular phase of the year – either the explicit  
name of a season, or certain plants/animals/weather traditionally associated  
with one.It also includes a 'cutting  
word' ( _kireji_ ), a meaningless sound inserted to provide a pause.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> Usually, this 'cutting word' is used to  
break the poem into two parts - two images, or a specific image and a more  
general setting – which strike off associations by their juxtaposition.

In English poetry, the essential scope, approach, and tone  
of the haiku are retained, but the physical structure is more flexible.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> The traditional Japanese seventeen-syllable form does not map into English, for several reasons:

  


  

  * The rhythms of the languages differ. While Japanese falls naturally into patterns of odd syllables, English falls naturally into pairs of syllables. English is also less polysyllabic overall (and thus replicating Japanese syllabics involves a greater number of words).
  

  * Japanese poetry is traditionally syllabic in structure. English poetry, on the other hand, is traditionally structured by stress patterns.
  

  * Syllable counts are calculated differently in Japanese and in English poetry. E.g. in Japanese, a long vowel is counted as two syllables.
  

  * The seventeen syllables of a traditional Japanese haiku includes its punctuation - the 'cutting word', which in English is replaced by normal punctuation marks.
  



  


English-language haiku poets  
make a more 'real' approximation of the Japanese form by following its word  
count rather than its syllable count.

Some common misunderstandings about haiku: first, that the  
form is _defined_ by a certain syllable count.   
Not so, as I've already suggested.   
Haiku is characterized by its subject and approach.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> Many amateur pieces written to a plan of seventeen  
syllables are not haiku at all, but squibs, abstract statements, or collapsed  
narratives.Which leads to the second  
common misunderstanding: that haiku is a condensed or 'potted' form, 'Hamlet  
in seventeen syllables'.Only in joke  
poems.A haiku is not the big picture,  
squashed; it is a selected _part_ of the big picture, drawn life-size.

And a few actual examples (two translations from Japanese  
masters, two contemporary English-language poems):

  


> this lone iris  
>   
> white  
>   
> in spring twilight  
> 
> 
> **Masaoka Shiki**   
> 

> pale moon before dawn;  
>   
> in the wooden bowl  
>   
> honesty  
> 
> 
> **Geoffrey Daniel**
> 
> (honesty is a European plant popular in flower arrangements; when dried, it has flat, oval, filmy white seed-pods)

> he says a word,  
>   
> and I say a word – autumn  
>   
> is deepening  
> 
> 
> **Takahama Kyoshi**   
> 

> intensive care –  
>   
> out there snow  
>   
> cut off by  
>   
> snow  
> 
> 
> **Caroline Gourlay**   
> 

**Sources**

  


  

  * Bowers, Faubion, ed. The Classic Tradition of Haiku: An  
Anthology. Dover: Mineola, NY, 1996.
  
  

  * Cobb, David, ed. The British Museum Haiku. The  
British Museum: London, 2002.
  
  

  * Cobb, David, and Martin Lucas, eds. The Iron Book of  
British Haiku. Iron Press: North Shields, 1998.
  
  

  * Presence (magazine)
  



  


Thanks to Elvenesse for introducing haiku discussion to HASA.

  



End file.
